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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Oliver Hill: Bright with Red

We just returned from vacation, during which time we visited friends and family, and I couldn't resist taking some pictures of house beauty for my blog...

Our friends the McGoverns have moved onto a farmette in Ohio with a tiny old house. Their property is christened Oliver Hill, after their tiny son who died of SIDS last year. (they also run Oliver Hill Home Health Care.) The house on the property is a renovation project, but I was impressed by how Molly has decorated it for their family of five children.

Their house is small, and despite some unusually fine wood detailing that gives cottage charm; it has (like a typical cottage) low ceilings and small windows. The pine trees around the house keep its interior in shade. So how does Molly keep her house bright and cheerful? With a vigorous and generous use of red.

Red is a strong color, usually used as an accent. Since Molly's house is small with rooms flowing into one another, she kept the color scheme consistent throughout the house, with her favorite color, red, as the unifying theme. Red shows up in vintage tablecloths, old sofas and metal tables, candles, picture frames, and the vibrant fiestaware on the hutch. And the central room of the house, the living room, is painted red. This scarlet shade gives what could have been a dark crowded house, overflowing with children's toys and homeschooling materials, a merry welcoming personality.

Purpose

How can you be an artist when you're a busy mom or dad who doesn't have much time to write novels or paint pictures or compose sonatas? This is the dilemma for the beauty-lover who wants to help build a culture of life but just doesn't have time.

What can be done is to try to make our homes our art, for our families.

Please don't imagine that perfection lies outside the margins of these photographs. When I share images and thoughts, it's not to erect an ideal standard, but to share what inspires me.

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